Fairfield Goodale dies at age 92

Fairfield Goodale, M.D., former chairman of pathology at the Medical College of Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth University from 1963-1976, died Sunday, Dec. 27, at his home in Massachusetts. He was 92.

Goodale is remembered fondly by former colleagues for the way he taught students and his passion for medical education. In a personal note, Hunter McGuire, M.D., an MCV alumnus and former professor of surgery at VCU, said, “At first I thought he was too kind to students, but in fact was a superb teacher. He made an enormous contribution to and impact on MCV/VCU, as a designer and implementer of the new curriculum and chair of medicine’s most vital scientific discipline.”

Goodale, who was born in Framingham, Massachusetts, on May 4, 1923, served in the U.S. Army Air Forces, flying fifty combat missions in P-51 Mustang fighters over France and Germany during World War II. His experience during the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945 greatly influenced his decision to become a physician.

Goodale wrote more than 100 research papers, largely focused on the relationship between dietary fat and subsequent development of atherosclerosis. After his tenure at VCU, Goodale served as the dean of the Medical College of Georgia and as the dean of Bowman Gray School of Medicine. Goodale, in concert with colleagues, pioneered a patient-oriented, problem-based model for medical education.